Shadow's Watch
by Silver Flyer
Summary: Guards. The eyes of the night. Terrifying beasts. Why would they care if a few winged kits decided to flee the nightmare that was life. Perhaps, because, if the kits could get away, what was stopping them. Oh yeah, the pesky chip that got replaced every month. That kinda stopped them. For now, at least.


**Alright, I am trying this story again, hopefully, now that I'm older, it will actually get a bit better...hopefully... Alright, here ya go. And I might change some details, so just a tiny warning there.**

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The setting sun cast a soft reddish orange light over the land as the autumn breeze swept through the clouds and over the cliffs and one of the highest cliffs, barely moving, stood a teen about 5'7" with hair the color of midnight. Her arms, bared by the sleeveless tank she was wearing, were decorated with colorful tattoos.

One of the tattoos, right on her left shoulder, was a pair of wings, bound by chains. Another, on the opposite shoulder was a panther, lazing in a tree. Wording, tattooed below the pictures, seemed to almost dance with the beauty of the way they were written. The one below the wings, simply stated

'ລະບົບຕ່ອງໂສ້ ຈະຖືກທໍາລາຍ ໃນ ທີ່ໃຊ້ເວລາ'

The other, below the panther, stated

'ຈິດວິນຍານຂອງ ຢູ່ ນິລັນດອນ'

The tattooed words made no sense to anyone that tried reading them, except, maybe the owner of the tattoos.

The sun sank lower, darkening the sky, as the teen slowly opened her eyes. Unnatural gold orbs of suppressed emotions stared out at the setting sun, noting how much time was left before she had to return to the School. With a sigh, large black wings dotted with white opened, at least sixteen, maybe seventeen feet in length, the very tips of which were sprinkled in silver. In a swift leap, obviously often practiced, she went over the edge and began to plummet toward the ground, her wings held close to her body.

Fifty feet...forty feet...thirty feet...twenty five feet...fifteen feet...

Her wings snapped open, catching the air like a sail as she soared upward, her wings moving in a rhythm only she could hear. She flew higher than her cliff had been, aided by the currents of air, before she just drifted along. A small, barely visible, smile managed to make it's way onto her face. She rarely got to do this anymore. She was usually on guard duty all day. Speaking of which...

The small crackle from the radio currently attached to a choker brought her to attention as a monotonous voice spoke through it

"Experiment number zero zero one, you are to return to base. Over."

With a sigh, 001 tilted her wings slightly and angled downward, going down in large, aimless circles. The sun, dropping down past the horizon gleamed for a moment in her vision. Her thoughts wandered again.

The sun was so bright, so beautiful. Not often seen below the drab roof of the School. It made things seem like a dream whenever she flew at this time. Often enough, she would allow one of her flock members to fly during her time as she was ordered to guard some treasure that the scientists seemed to enjoy looking at.

A wry expression crossed her face.

Treasure, huh. Is that what it was called these days? Children forced through whatever the scientists ordered, their bones, skin, even genes put through mutilation as to satisfy the scientists' curiosity. Treasure indeed. Blood treasure. Treasure made out of flesh, blood, bones, and mutated genes. Sickening...

She focused as she landed in the small area built for her flock to take off and return from. The scientists weren't concerned with them escaping. After all, the chips they had placed in their shoulder made that impossible. And every month, when their blood, acidic enough to destroy the chip thanks to the poison naturally generated within their blood, finally finished destroying the chips, the group was gathered up and new chips were implanted. It was a process that 001 and the others like her were used to by now, ensuring that it barely even stung now. When they had first begun it, though, it had burned for days, or even weeks after. Now, it didn't have any bite to it.

001 entered the door that stood at the end of their pen and her blank eyes instinctively cataloged the four scientists waiting for her, along with one of her own.

Experiment 005, a male teen with a lion running in a field tattooed on one shoulder and a matching pair of chained wings on the other, nodded respectfully at 001, his tawny colored hair making a shaggy halo around his head, the tips ending at the bottom of his ears. Dangling from one ear was a constant small gold studded earring that matched the gold coloring of his eyes.

001 nodded back before focusing on what the scientists were saying.

Since they believed that 001 and others like her were unable to speak, due to them never actually doing so in their entire existence, they usually chatted a lot whenever they were around, and also gave them their orders as though 001 and the others were stupid. Sometimes, it made 001 just want to take a chunk out of them and then poison them with her blood. A nice slow and painful death. After all, the poison in their blood had been created with no antidote. The chips were placed in by machines and the scientists never tried to touch their blood. The only ones immune to the poison were the others who had that poison running through them.

"Isn't it nice, to have these pets do all of the guarding for us?"

This scientist had brown hair, and wore shiny glasses. His scent was of greed and blood. Ugh...

"Yeah, and the best part is, they are too stupid to even try to escape. Not that they would get very far anyway. Those chips in their shoulders certainly don't let them wander too far."

This one was black haired, and blue eyed. His scent was greed and electronics. Irritating to the senses.

"You do realize that the boss won't be very happy if he finds out we're talking on the job."

Blue haired. Was that natural? It smelled natural. Weird. His eyes were purple. How was that not scientifically changed? But no, it was completely natural, even a gene change done by science left a smell, but this was all natural. Made for a strange scientist. His scent was of oil and electronics. Better than the other two.

"Alright, already, Okumeru. We're working, we're working. Besides, it's not like the boss cares if we talk in front of these things."

Things? Oh, now they were just insulting. 001 hid a slightly sadistic expression. Things, were they now? This one would get what was coming for him. He had black hair and brown eyes. But his scent told him apart from everyone. Hatred and greed. A disgusting combination, but very noticeable. He would be found no matter what.

The oil and electronics one, dead scientist walking had called him Okumeru, sighed and turned toward 001.

"Experiment 001, you're going to be patrolling in the Cage room, in Cat form. We will be aiding you in putting on the armor when you shift."

001 tilted her head. This one, strange already, seemed different from the other scientists. He seemed to believe that they were intelligent, if only enough to understand him. Greed and electronics scent laughed and said

"Come on, Okumeru, you realize that the beast probably didn't understand a word of that. Remember, they're stupid beasts. You gotta talk slow and simple, like this."

He turned to 001 and said

"Experiment 001. Guard Cages. Cat form. Armor fitted once animal."

001 resisted the urge to strangle the idiot and shifted to her panther form.

In this form, she was larger than other panthers, and way more vicious. Her claws, once sunk into flesh, would leak the poison inside her blood to the victim, giving a nice painful death before latching onto their neck and breaking it. Her tail, naturally clubbed at the end, could smash quite a few things into rubble with a simple swing. Her fangs, also able to leak poison, were strong enough to destroy most metals. Her wings in this form, normally folded and hidden under the armor, were completely black. And her ears, larger than normal, were enhanced to enable her to hear better than any other cat in the world. Her eyes could see almost as far as a hawk's, if she wished for it. All in all, a perfect predator for guarding at night.

Okumeru shook his head and motioned her toward the armor sitting on a pedestal nearby. 001 walked over as she noted that 005 was being sent outside to fly for a while. Okumeru slowly affixed her armor to her.

The armor, black to blend in, consisted of a headpiece, a body piece, leg pieces, and a tail piece. Her wings were pinned to her back for this type of armor, and her tail had a spiked club on the end. The headpiece even had metal fangs on front, no doubt to help in making sure victims wouldn't heal without scars, as long as she used only the metal to injure them.

Okumeru stepped away and looked back toward the other three to see them watching 005 leaping into the air, his seventeen-eighteen foot wings easily getting him into the air and catching the air currents.

001 snorted and headed for the door. It was electronically programmed to scan her eyes so that they could go anywhere in their animal form, as long as it was registered for entrance.

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001 slipped into the open door of the Cage room, instantly keeping to the darkness as she scanned the room for occupants. Her eyes widened slightly as she noted who exactly was being stored in this room at the moment. Along with all the other various failing experiments stuck inside their cages, there were six different cages stacked next to each other and away from any of the other experiments. In each cage was a single occupant. And each one of them had wings.

There were three old teens, around the age of 001 and some of her flock. One was a female with long hair. Then there were two boys, one with short hair, one with long hair. The short haired one seemed have trouble seeing, that is, if he could see at all. Then there was a slightly younger female, with dark colored hair. Then the smallest two were a boy and a girl, looking around the same age, give or take a few years. If 001 had to guess, the girl was younger.

001 frowned as she crept closer, staying absolutely silent as she listened.

"-has already agreed that we need to get out of here."

This was from one of the older teens, the female one.

"But can we really trust him?"

The older teen again, long haired boy.

"He's practically raised us already. Why wouldn't we be able to trust him?"

the female again.

"The long haired boy raised his hands in surrender

"Just being cautious, Max."

Max? They had...names? But no one here had names except for the scientists.

Max sighed

"Don't worry, Fang. We can trust Jeb. He's never led us astray."

So, the long haired male was Fang, and the female was Max? Then what about the others? Did they have names too? Or was it only the two?

The short haired older male frowned and said

"Uh, Max, how exactly are we going to get out of here. They have cameras watching our every move usually."

Max waved a dismissive hand

"Jeb already said he'd take care of it, Iggy. All we have to do is wait for the right time."

Iggy? That was his name?

The smallest girl piped up

"Wouldn't the end of the month be the best time to get out of here?"

Max frowned and said

"Could be, Angel. We'll have to discuss it with Jeb soon, though."

Angel? Strange name, but kinda fitting. Either that or Princess, maybe. 001 had a funny feeling that the girl was a bit spoiled by the others and this Jeb.

Max looked at the others and asked

"Any questions? Gazzie? Nudge?"

The boy shook his head, and then the other girl did. Max nodded and then said

"We'd better try to rest then. We'll need our strength for tomorrow."

The six of them shifted around in their cages, getting comfy, as 001 slipped farther away from them. So, their names were Max, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gazzy, and Angel?

Interesting.

001 glanced back at them for a moment, before losing herself in the mass of cages. She'd have to keep an eye out for them.

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**And done with the first chapter. Send me a review and tell me how I did this time. I tried incorporating more detail and if some people are out of character, meh, I don't own them, so there's a reason they aren't in character. Not sure if I'll do pairs yet or not, but if I do, I'll make sure that I ask or suggestions. Oh, and the markings on 001's arms, you'll eventually know what they mean.'Till later. SF~**


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